What Happens After Treatment for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?

Completing treatment can be
both stressful and exciting.
You will be relieved to finish
treatment, yet it is hard not to worry
about cancer coming back. This is a
very common concern among those
who have had cancer.

Follow-up Care
Lymphomas are
a diverse group of diseases that require
different treatments and can have very
different prognoses. Your care after
treatment will depend to a large extent
on what type of lymphoma you have,
what type of treatment you received,
and how effective it was.

Your doctor will probably want to
see you regularly to discuss any symptoms
you may have and to do physical
exams, usually every few months for
the first year or so and gradually less
often after that. Your physical exam
will include careful attention to size
and firmness of lymph nodes.

Imaging tests may be done, based
on the type, location, and stage of lymphoma.
If internal lymph nodes or
other internal organs are or were affected,
CT scans and/or PET scans may
be used to measure the size of any
remaining tumor masses. PET scans
are particularly useful if your doctors
aren’t sure if a mass seen on CT scan
is an active lymphoma or scar tissue.

You may need to have frequent
blood tests to check that you have recovered
from treatment and to look
for possible signs of problems such as
disease recurrence. Blood counts can
also sometimes become abnormal because
of a disease called myelodysplasia,
which is a defect of the bone marrow
that can lead to leukemia. Some chemotherapy
drugs can cause this disease.
It is also possible for a person to develop
leukemia a few years after being
treated for lymphoma.

Having cancer and dealing with treatment can be time-consuming and
emotionally draining, but it can also be a time to look at your life in new ways.

If the lymphoma does recur at some
point, further treatment will depend
on what treatments you’ve had before,
how long it’s been since treatment,
and your health.

Seeing a New Doctor
At some
point after your cancer diagnosis and
treatment, you may find yourself in
the office of a new doctor. Your original
doctor may have moved or retired,
or you may have moved or changed
doctors for some reason. It is important
that you be able to give your new
doctor the exact details of your diagnosis
and treatment. Make sure you have
the following information handy:

a copy of your pathology report(s)
from any biopsies or surgeries

if you had surgery, a copy of your
operative report(s)

if you were hospitalized, a copy of
the discharge summary that doctors must
prepare when patients are sent home

if you had radiation therapy, a summary
of the type and dose of radiation
and when and where it was given

if you had chemotherapy or other
medicines, a list of your drugs, drug
doses, and when you took them

It is also important to keep your
health insurance coverage. Even though
no one wants to think about the cancer
coming back, it is always a possibility.
If it happens, the last thing you want
to have to worry about is paying for
treatment.

Lifestyle Changes
Having cancer
and dealing with treatment can be time-consuming
and emotionally draining,
but it can also be a time to look at
your life in new ways. Maybe you
are thinking about how to improve
your health over the long term. Some
people even begin this process during
cancer treatment.

Think about your life before you
learned you had cancer. Were there
things you did that might have made
you less healthy? Maybe you drank
too much alcohol, or ate more than
you needed, or smoked, or didn’t
exercise very often. Emotionally,
maybe you kept your feelings bottled
up, or maybe you let stressful situations
go on too long.

Now is not the time to feel guilty
or to blame yourself. However, you
can start making changes today that
can have positive effects for the rest
of your life. Not only will you feel
better but you will also be healthier.
What better time than now to take advantage
of the motivation you have as
a result of going through a life changing
experience like having cancer?

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Reprinted by the permission of the American Cancer Society, Inc. from www.cancer.org. All rights reserved.